The Federation of Thai Tourism Associations has formally warned the Thai government that overtourism is now at crisis point. With projections that the calendar year 2024 will see 40 million overseas visitors – parallel to 2019 the last pre-covid year – both the environment and tourist comfort are under dire threat.
The most badly affected cities are Phuket and Pattaya where there are respectively 118 and 99 overseas visitors for every local resident in research conducted by MoneyTransfers. That research is already several months out of date and the true ratios could be worse. Chris Flynn, chief officer of the World Tourism Association, said that Thai authorities don’t seem to have determined “what they can take before they break”.
The most obvious signs of overtourism in Pattaya are awesome traffic congestion…
